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Housing Review: Hewitt

Lottery numbers come out this Monday… do you know where you want to be living yet? The Nine Ways of Knowing blog plans to cover all the Barnard residential halls, so keep checking back before appointment times begin on Friday, April 5th!

Doubles: 4 doublesTriples: 2 triplesFind out what rooms are still available.

General DescriptionHewitt is corridor-style, composed of singles, with several doubles and triples. Rooms roughly measure 16′ by 8′, but vary in size slightly. Though narrow, Hewitt singles are preferable to those in Elliot. Linoleum floors are easy to maintain, but many residents invest in small area rugs. Closets are in-wall and decent size, though do not offer a lot of extra storage for miscellaneous stuff. Rooms come furnished with a bed, desk, chair and dresser.

BathroomsEach Hewitt floor shares a large bathroom with several sinks, toilets, and showers. The bathrooms are cleaned daily by facilities, but sharing a communal bathroom can always be an interesting (and sometimes gross) experience. I personally find the Hewitt showers to be small and cramp, but the handicapped showers in Sulzberger and Brooks (the best bathrooms in the Quad, in my humble opinion) are easily accessible from either end of the hall.

Go for a Claremont view!

KitchenHewitt residents have access to the kitchenettes in the Sulzberger lounges; all have a stovetop, sink, and microwave. If you like baking cookies, try to live on an even floor (4, 6, 8) because these kitchenettes have ovens.

Prices (updated for the 2013-2014 academic year)Single: $9,800 for the academic year/ $4,900 for one semesterDouble/Triples: $8,450 for the academic year/$4,225 for one semesterMinimal Meal Plan: $2,000 per semester ($2,107 for kosher)Pros• You live on the Quad, which puts you steps away from campus and the 1 train – feel free to hit snooze.• The halls are, for the most part, eerily quiet (which can be a pro or con, depending on what you want).• Accessible from the Sulzberger (fast elevators!) or Brooks entrances, except the second floor.• Hop-skip-and-a-jump from Hewitt Dining Hall, the gym, the track, the Quad computer labs, and music practice rooms – pretty much anything on Barnard’s campus.• Wireless internet (Barnard Secure and Barnard Guest… albeit, sporadically)• Get a room on the west (Claremont) side – you’ll have a view of Riverside Park and the Hudson River (and gorgeous sunsets in the afternoon).• The Sulzberger lounges now have flat screen TVs with cable – you can watch to your heart’s content (as long as no one’s studying for a calculus midterm).• Depending on your room, you may have space for a sofa – great for sleepovers and hanging out.

Long and narrow could mean couch possibilities

Cons• It’s easy to lock yourself up in your room all day doing work, since Hewitt is pretty antisocial.• You are required to pay for the Quad Upperclass Meal Plan, so you’ll be stuck eating most meals in Hewitt, Ferris, or John Jay just to try to get rid of your meals for the semester.• No access to a kitchen – get ready to bake your cupcakes with freshmen studying biology in the Sulzberger lounge.• You’ll be living in the Quad with freshmen – chances are you’ll have friends experiencing life beyond the gates while you’re still on the Quad.• Walls are paper-thin – you will hear all your neighbors’ business: their phone calls home, their Pandora station, and their sexcapades.• No AC in the summer and heat overcompensates in the winter. You’ll be sweating all year.• Some residents take issue with extraneous noise – garbage trucks on the west (Claremont) side and the acoustics of the Quad on the east side.• Residents on the second floor only have the option to enter through brooks

Recommendations• Try to find friends who live on the same floor as you; it’s much more bearable with friendly faces down the hall. Make dinner plans with friends who live in Hewitt, because it’ll make eating in dining halls and using up meals more fun.• Rooms towards the end of the hall and on the west (Claremont) side tend to be more spacious and get more natural light.• The doors and door frames on each floor are painted bizarre pastel colors, so walk around to get a better idea of what color palette matches your bedspread (if that’s your kind of thing). • Service and Support Animals may be with some residents on Hewitt 2, so if you have allergies or a dislike for animals, this could be something to avoid.